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(No Model.)

G.-K. FUCHS. BOTTLE STOPPBR AND FASTENER- No. 573,588. Patented Dec. 22, '1896.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES K. FUCHS, OF IVATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF THREE- FOURTHS TO VICTORY L. SAWYER, OF SAME PLACE.

BOTTLE STOPPER AND FASTENER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 573,588, dated December 22, 1896.

Application filed March 19, 1895. Serial Nox 542,365. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES K. FUcHs, a citizen of the United States, residing at \Yaterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle Stoppers and Fasteners, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to the class of bottle stoppers and fastenings that are more particularly intended and adapted to be permanently located in the neck or mouth of a bottle; and the object of the invention is to provide an efficient stopper having a very simple and cheap fastening which will not interrupt or interfere with the flow of liquid out of the bottle, but which will prevent liquid from being introduced into the bottle and which stopper will be securely held against wilful removal.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the neck of a bottle provided with an improved stopper and fastening. Fig. 2 is a cross-section 2 5 of the neck of a bottle and shell of the stopper on plane denoted by line X X of Fig. 1.

In the views, a indicates the neck of a bottle or other receptacle in which the stopper is located. This stopper is shown as consist- 0 ing of a shell formed of two cylindrical tubes 1) and c. The outer section b has a reduced mouth 1, and about this reduced mouth is placed a yielding seal for making a liquidtight joint between the mouth of the stopper 5 and the bottle, a plate being secured to the end of the reduced mouth of this section of the tube for permanently keeping the yielding seal in position. This outer section also bears a conical guard 2, made of very hard material, as glass, porcelain, or steel, the

shape and material combining to form an obj ect which it will be almost impossible to perforate by drilling, for it will be very difficult to start a drill into this piece. A protector 3, formed of superimposed disks having noncoinciding liquid-passage openings, is placed below the conical guard for preventing the insertion of a wire to open the valve or to tamper with the fastening. The section 0 has the valve-seat 4 and the valve 5, that is connected by means of a stem 6 with a bent lever 7, that is connected with a lever 8, that is attached to a float 9. These parts are more fully shown and described in my application for a patent filed March 19, 1895, Serial No. 542,366, the leading or essential difference between said application and the present invention being the fastening for retaining the stopper in place, which I will now proceed to describe.

The outer section of the shell, between the protector against wiring and the valve, is pro vided with a fastening 10. This fastening 10 consists of a bent rod of stiff round steel wire, the bend being at the middle and being less than half a circle, leaving the ends 11 projecting outward, so that they pass through perforations in the walls of this section of the shell into the holding-groove 12 in the wall of the bottle. A fastening formed in this manner, with its ends projecting through the walls of the shell into the groove in the walls of the bottle, cannot be pulled out by any possible amount of pulling on the stopper, so that the stopper cannot be removed, and yet the stopper can be readily and quickly put in place, for when pushed into the neck of a bottle the ends of the fastening are forced in toward the walls of the shell, compressing the curved part of the Sc spring-wire, but immediately as the groove is reached the curved part springs outward and forces the ends of the rod into the groove, where they firmly remain. The fastening formed in this manner can he made very stiff, and yet it is so small as not to interfere with the free flowing of liquid out of the bottle. It will have suflicient strength to securely hold the stopper in the neck of the bottle, for any pull on the stopper tending to remove it produces a shearing strain on the ends of the wire between the shell and the bottle-groove, and this does not in any way tend to bend the curved part of the spring or cause the ends to be forced inward out of 5 the groove.

The fastening cannot be tampered with, for the conical guard that projects into the reduced mouth of the outlet outside of the fastening is practically imperforate, for it too would be very difficult to drill it if it was formed of glass or porcelain, and a wire cannot be inserted to tamper with the fastening because of the wire-protector inserted between the imperforate guard against drilling and the fastening.

The fastening is very simple, can be readily applied to stoppers of the class mentioned, and is very cheap to manufacture. A stopper with this fastening is readily placed or driven into a bottle, where it is strongly and tightly held, for the elastic or yielding seal placed about the reduced mouth or outlet of the tubular shell of the stopper can be closely compressed against the side walls of the mouth of the bottleand will be held so compressed by the fastening. Therewill be no shake or rattle to the parts, for the elasticity of the seal will tend to draw the stopper outward against the ends of the fastening-rod. The fastening-rod, while it is protected by the wire-protector and the guard against drilling placed above'it, is of such shape that it is very stiff, and a fine wire that might be bent and thrust therein would not have strength suflicient to bend it so that its ends would be withdrawn from the groove in the neck of the bottle, and, further, this fastening-rod is placed in the outer section of the tube to hold that in place against removal and also be away from the liquid which is originallyplacedin the bottle.

I claim as my invention In combination with the neck of a bottle having an annular groove around its inner wall, a thin shell consisting ofan inner tubular section with a float-operated valve borne by this section of the shell and an outer tubular section with a reduced mouth about which is placed a yielding seal for closing liquid-tight the mouth of the bottle about the end of the stopper, a plate secured to the mouth of the outer section outside the yielding seal, a conical imperforate guard of hard material located within the mouth of the outer section of the shell at the reduced portion to render boring impracticable, a protector inside of the guard to prevent the insertion of a wire and a rod of stifi spring metal with a bend of less than one-half a circle supported by the outer tubular section of the shell between the wire-protector and the valve and having its ends projecting through the walls of the outer tubular portion into the annular groove around the interior of the neck of the bottle, substantially as specified.

CHARLES K. FUCHS.

\Vitnesses:

J OHN B. DOHERTY, VICTORY L. SAWYE 

